July 20, 2009

Carlos Quentin’s science lecture

“I have some soreness. Something I’ll just deal with, but it’s nothing compared to what I experienced in the past, before the injury and after the injury. I’m confident that, knock on wood, I won’t have any setbacks.” … Quentin has special orthotics made for his shoes, in order to give him the most comfortable fit possible, and has no fear of re-injury through pushing himself on a daily basis. According to Quentin, baserunning, outfield movement and waking up the next day and being able to do it again were the biggest hurdles to overcome. But he stayed the extra time on the rehab assignment in order to test every possible scenario. “This is the big leagues. An inch here is pretty big and can cost a game, so I needed to make sure I could perform up to standards that would allow any circumstances like that to not come into play. Hitting a base and you’re not dealing with standard change of direction — you’re dealing with a torquing of the foot or the circular pattern. It’s just not a normal running pattern, as I found out with the injury. And hitting a bag while you’re running — so I think I was on base enough and had enough opportunities to test that, and I responded well.”